1. OFFICE OF HEALTH PROMOTION & WELLNESS
Program Assessment
Jessica Altice, Erin DeCaro & Kate Hendricks

2. The Office of Health Promotion and Wellness
• In 2007, the University of Alabama Office of Health Promotion and Wellness was
established to:
• Integrate and coordinate currently available resources for wellness
• Assess the perceived needs of employees for health promotion
• Management and engage and establish a culture of wellness
• It is a part of the Office for Academic Affairs
• The Office director is Dr. Rebecca Kelly PhD, RD, CDE

3. The Office of Health Promotion and Wellness
• WellBAMA is the Office of Health Promotion’s signature wellness program for faculty
and staff. The program is designed to help UA employees understand their current level
of health and identify health goals.
• WellBAMA provides :
• Free health screenings for faculty and staff followed up with individual health coaching
• Diabetes education series
• Healthy cooking demonstrations and other nutrition instruction(ex: family-based healthy eating
programs)
• Group fitness sessions and workday walking programs
• Stress management technique classes
• Tobacco cessation programs.

4. University Employees
• The University has over 5,300 employees.
• 55.6% female
• 19% minorities
• Categories of employment:
• Professional staff (28.5%)
• Faculty (28%)
• Secretarial/clerical ( 17%)
• Service/maintenance (12.6%)
• Paraprofessional and staff (8.5)
• Skilled craft workers (3.4%)
• Executive, administrative and managerial staff (2%)
• Approximately 84% of employees work full-time.

5. Program Assessment Project
• In order to assist the Office of Health Promotion in continuing to provide effective and
comprehensive health programming, the UA/UAB student project team was asked to design,
deliver and analyze the data from an employee needs assessment survey.
• The intended audience for the findings of this needs assessment are the staff of the Office
of Health Promotion and, ultimately, the university administrators.
• The assessment findings are intended to:
• Provide a continued business case for the Office of Health Promotion to the university administrators
by documenting strong employee desire for health programming
• Develop new and refine existing wellness programs, making them more responsive to the needs of
university employees
• The survey is also an opportunity for employees to voice their needs and interests for work-
based health programs.
• The survey was designed with regular consultation with OHPW staff and the questions are
reflective of the literature and staff experience.

6. Objectives and Activities
• I. Create and deliver a program assessment survey to assess employee’s use and
satisfaction with the office’s health promotion programs, with a special emphasis on
identifying reasons for not participating, by April 1, 2012 with a 15% response rate over
a 2 week period.
• Initial Meeting with office director
• Conduct literature review
• Review previous UA health-related surveys
• Identify existing UA health promotion and wellness programs
• Meetings with office staff and a communications specialist
• Draft Survey
• Project team meetings (phone, in person, email)
• Obtain approvals through the UA hierarchy and refine as necessary, adjust timeline
• Transfer survey into Survey Monkey
• Disseminate survey online via emails and Dialogue
• Recruit employees without university computers at wellness events using paper surveys

7. Objectives and Activities
• II. To complete a comprehensive summary report of survey findings to the Office of
Health Promotion and Wellness by May 8, 2012 (comprehensiveness to be determined
by acceptance of report by Dr. Kelly).
• Monitor data
• Analyze findings
• Review with UA staff
• Project team meetings
• Finalize report
• Submit to Dr. Kelly and refine as needed

8. Timeline

9. PRECEDE-PROCEED

10. The Planning Model
• PRECEDE – Early planning phases completed by UA’s OHP in committee meetings and staff
reviews. Initial creation of un-validated survey instrument based on review of resources and UA
faculty & staff demographic. Initial offerings of programs (Strive for 5, Couch to 5k) based off
this portion of planning model.
• Population assessments
• Social assessment
• Epidemiological
• Ecological
• Policy review
• PROCEED – Our team’s task was to pilot an instrument created for the purpose of specific
evaluation.
• Implementation – is WellBAMA reaching clientele on the issues about which they care?
• Process evaluation – how are programs operating in terms of marketing and reach?
• Impact evaluation – if we are focusing on the right interest areas, are the programs working well?
• Outcome expectations – customer satisfaction?

11. All in the Questions…
• Implementation – is WellBAMA reaching clientele on the issues about which they
care?
• What are your health concerns?
• If programs on the following were available, would you be interested?
• Process evaluation – how are programs operating in terms of marketing and reach?
• Have you ever participated in the following programs? Have you heard of them?
• If you ceased participation, why?
• Impact evaluation – Impact evaluation – if we are focusing on the right interest areas,
are the programs working well?
• How are our incentives?
• How can we best reach you with information?
• Outcome expectations – customer satisfaction?
• Please rate your satisfaction with the following programs…

12. Review of the Literature
• Health Service Needs
• Needs Assessment in Other Areas
• University Wellness Programs

13. Health Service Needs
• Literature specific to employees in a university setting was not available.
• In the past 25 years there has been an increase in worksite wellness programs.
• It is hypothesized that roughly 90% of companies offer some type of health and
wellness intervention.
• Usually, the main purpose of implementing programs is to decrease absenteeism, control
health care costs, and improve the health of employees .
• Little or no published information was available on worksite needs assessments.
• It appears that most companies utilize national and local data to plan and implement
programs.

14. Health Service Needs
• Literature is not available on broad scale employee assessments but literature was found
on individual assessments.
• According to the 2004 National Worksite Health Promotion Survey, nearly 50% of
employers provide a health risk assessment or biometric screening.
• These assessments focus on the needs of the individual and not the worksite population.
• These types of assessments are popular because they are easy to administer, provide valuable
information, are accessible to the majority of employees, and can allow for follow up.
• In order to gather additional information, needs assessments in other disciplines were
reviewed.

15. Needs Assessments in other Areas
• What is the purpose of a needs assessment?
• Assessments are utilized to identify gaps between current conditions and the desired conditions.
• Assessments are frequently used in healthcare, education, community planning and social service
organizations.
• Why is it important to review needs assessments from other disciplines?
• Researchers in other disciplines can provide insight into strategies that could be useful in the
health education field.

16. Needs Assessments Reviewed
• Assessment conducted by the Tri-County Health Department after Hurricane Katrina
• Assessment conducted in a north Georgia school district
• Community forums

17. University Wellness Programs
University of California
“UC Living Well”
• Goal is to encourage all
employees and students to
start and maintain a healthy
lifestyle.
• Annual health assessment
for employees, retirees,
spouses, and domestic
partners.
• Provide nutrition and healthy
lifestyle workshops, cooking
classes, and resources to
employees and students.
University of Michigan
“MHealthy”
• Needs assessment was
conducted from 2009-2011
and revealed stress was the
most prevalent risk factor.
• Annual health
questionnaires are also
administered.
• Provide resources, online
screenings, and information
on classes for employees.

18. University Wellness Programs
Cornell University
“Cornell University Wellness Program”
• Services are offered to
employees, retirees, and
spouses/domestic partners.
• Services include seminars,
cooking demonstrations,
education classes, and
screenings.
• Additional services are
offered to individuals who
join the wellness program.
• An annual report was
complete for the 2009-2010
fiscal year.
University of Alabama
“WellBAMA”
• Aims to improve the health
and well being of faculty and
staff.
• Services include health
screenings, a personal
health coach, education
programs, and health
challenges.
• All programs fall under one
of the following categories:
Move, Balance, Nourish, or
Live.

19. Implications for WellBAMA
• OHP should try to promote a second wave of implementation for the wellness survey .
Future programming can be based upon the results of the wellness survey, Healthy
People 2020 guidelines, and local data.
• Forums can be conducted on campus in the form of a “Lunch & Learn” in order to
reach faculty/staff that may not have completed the survey.
• Form a relationship with the benefits office in order to assess where the majority of
healthcare dollars are spent.
• Provide participants the opportunity to evaluate programs directly after implementation.
• If funds are available, enrollment in WellBAMA can be offered to spouses/domestic
partners; dependent children; and retirees.

20. Online Survey and Findings
• Sent out to 1800 employees online with results coming in daily.
• Link in Dialogue (all employees with computer access)
• Paper copy data being entered now. Distributed to 47 employees, only 3 refused. Second
paper copy data collection 4/24/2012.

21. Data Collection
• In-person collection at
WellBAMA events to
bridge the digital
divide:
• Tuesday, 17 April
• Tuesday, 24 April

22. Barriers and Resolutions
• Barrier: Conflicting schedules
• In person and conference calls.
• Project team meetings with updates.
• Careful notes and email confirmations.
• Barrier: Complex University Relations
• Communications through preceptor
• Altering timeline
• Findings ways to modify survey without losing key information
• Sharing ownership with stakeholders
• Barrier: Abrupt change in University of Alabama Leadership
• Modify survey link distribution plan
• Add new methods of data collection

23. Final Slide
Resources
• Office of Health Promotion and Wellness http://wellness.ua.edu/
• WellBAMA http://wellness.ua.edu/?page_id=966
• Questions?
• Thank You!

24. Works Cited
Cornell University. (2011). Cornell University Wellness Program. Retrieved from http://wellness.cornell.edu/
Ghosh, T.S., Patnaik, J.L., & Vogt, R.L. (2007). Rapid Needs Assessment among Hurricane Katrina Evacuees in Metro-Denver. Journal
of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 18(2), 362-368.
Hunt, M.H., Meyers, J., Davies, G., Meyers, B., Rogers-Grogg, K, & Neel, J. (2002). A Comprehensive Needs Assessment to Facilitate
Prevention of School Drop Out and Violence. Psychology in Schools, 39(4), 399-416.
Linnan, L., Bowling, M., Childress, J., Lindsay, G., Blakey, C., et al. (2008). Results of the 2004 National Worksite Health Promotion
Survey. American Journal of Public Health, 98(8), 1503-1509.
Parks, K.M & Steelman, L.A. (2008). Organizational Wellness Programs: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 13(1),
58-68.
Soler, R.E., Leeks, K.D., Razi, S., Hopkins, D.P., Griffith, M., et al. (2010). A Systematic Review of Selected Interventions for Worksite
Health Promotion: The Assessment of Health Risks with Feedback. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 38(2), S237-S262.
University of Alabama. (2012). The University of Alabama Health Promotion & Welness. Retrieved from http://wellness.ua.edu
University of California. (2011). UC Living Well. Retrieved from
http://uclivingwell.ucop.edu/welcome.html
University of Michigan. (2010). MHealthy- University of Michigan Health & Well-Being
Services. Retrieved from http://www.hr.umich.edu/mhealthy/